Duty surviving Self-Love

Unchanged within, to see all changed without,

Is a blank lot and hard to bear, no doubt.

Yet why at others` Wanings should`st thou fret ?

Then only might`st thou feel a just regret,

Hadst thou withheld thy love or hid thy light

In selfish forethought of neglect and slight.

O wiselier then, from feeble yearnings freed,

While, and on whom, thou may`st--shine on ! nor heed

Whether the object by reflected light

Return thy radiance or absorb it quite :

And tho` thou notest from thy safe recess

Old Friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air,

Love them for what they are ; nor love them less,

Because to thee they are not what they were.